Cosmopolite

Product Notes

After a year of intense writing and recording, Kevin Soucie has just released his new CD called, Cosmopolite. What does the record sound like? Describing it as 'unique' and 'unlike anything else,' would be accurate, but doesn't really answer your question. So let's try to be a bit more responsive to your inquiry: Imagine for a moment that John Prine and Mark Knopfler got together with Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel to make a record and invited Shawn Colvin and Edith Piaf to the studio to sing background harmonies. The result would probably closely resemble Kevin Soucie's new CD, Cosmopolite. Soucie's eleven original songs form a tasty goulash of musical styles, drawing from folk, rock, blues, reggae, country and world music. Cosmopolite leads you on a fascinating and quirky international journey through several facets of 'love' - searching for love, love found, love lost, fatherly love, obsessive love, in-your-face love, uncertain love, regretful love and good old fashion romantic love. Soucie even includes a song about love of the Northwoods - a tune that would make the state tourism secretary smile and cringe at the same time. Soucie's ballads take you from the elegant cafes of Paris, France to the raucous resorts of Hazelhurst, Wisconsin. The list of Soucie's musical influences is diverse, international and includes: America's Dylan, Prine, Brown, Colvin and Shindell; Wisconsin's Camplin and Sieger; Canada's Cohen, Cockburn and McGarrigles'; Québec's Charlebois, Rivard and Bélanger; Poland's Grechuta and Nieman; France's Brassens, Piaf, Cabrel, Le Forestier and Fersen; Belgium's Brel; Italy's Battisti and De Gregori; and of course, the Beatles. There are elements of each in Soucie's mélange of 'electric cosmopolitan folk' songs. In making Cosmopolite, Soucie enlisted the talents of musician/song-writer extraordinaire, John Sieger, to produce the album. In 1988, Sieger's band, Semi-Twang, recorded the critically-acclaimed Salty Tears for Warner Bros. Records and artists like Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Harrison, The BoDeans, Robbie Fulks and Flaco Jimenez have recorded his songs. More recently, Sieger joined forces with Michael Feldman, host of public radio's 'Whad'ya Know?' to make Her Country, a collection of all new Feldman/ Sieger tunes recorded by Sieger and backed up by rock n' roll band, The Skeletons. Sieger proved to be the ultimate session musician on Cosmopolite, laying down numerous spicy and memorable electric guitar, bass and keyboard tracks. Multi-faceted songstress, Robin Pluer, also frequented the studio contributing sultry harmonies and playful keyboards. Pluer has not only performed and composed with Sieger, she has also worked extensively with Paul Cebar (and the Milwaukeeans), as well as with Peter Buffett. Her voice has been heard from coast to coast on programs such as Garrison Keeler's Prairie Home Companion and on NPR's World Café. Rounding out Soucie's talented session team was jazz drummer, Ted Brusubardis, who not only supplied percussion, but doubled as recording engineer. Brusubardis' skills with sound production provided the right mixes for final mastering by music industry renowned Trevor Sadler at mastermindproductions. Cosmopolite is a musical journey you will surely enjoy.

After a year of intense writing and recording, Kevin Soucie has just released his new CD called, Cosmopolite. What does the record sound like? Describing it as 'unique' and 'unlike anything else,' would be accurate, but doesn't really answer your question. So let's try to be a bit more responsive to your inquiry: Imagine for a moment that John Prine and Mark Knopfler got together with Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel to make a record and invited Shawn Colvin and Edith Piaf to the studio to sing background harmonies. The result would probably closely resemble Kevin Soucie's new CD, Cosmopolite. Soucie's eleven original songs form a tasty goulash of musical styles, drawing from folk, rock, blues, reggae, country and world music. Cosmopolite leads you on a fascinating and quirky international journey through several facets of 'love' - searching for love, love found, love lost, fatherly love, obsessive love, in-your-face love, uncertain love, regretful love and good old fashion romantic love. Soucie even includes a song about love of the Northwoods - a tune that would make the state tourism secretary smile and cringe at the same time. Soucie's ballads take you from the elegant cafes of Paris, France to the raucous resorts of Hazelhurst, Wisconsin. The list of Soucie's musical influences is diverse, international and includes: America's Dylan, Prine, Brown, Colvin and Shindell; Wisconsin's Camplin and Sieger; Canada's Cohen, Cockburn and McGarrigles'; Québec's Charlebois, Rivard and Bélanger; Poland's Grechuta and Nieman; France's Brassens, Piaf, Cabrel, Le Forestier and Fersen; Belgium's Brel; Italy's Battisti and De Gregori; and of course, the Beatles. There are elements of each in Soucie's mélange of 'electric cosmopolitan folk' songs. In making Cosmopolite, Soucie enlisted the talents of musician/song-writer extraordinaire, John Sieger, to produce the album. In 1988, Sieger's band, Semi-Twang, recorded the critically-acclaimed Salty Tears for Warner Bros. Records and artists like Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Harrison, The BoDeans, Robbie Fulks and Flaco Jimenez have recorded his songs. More recently, Sieger joined forces with Michael Feldman, host of public radio's 'Whad'ya Know?' to make Her Country, a collection of all new Feldman/ Sieger tunes recorded by Sieger and backed up by rock n' roll band, The Skeletons. Sieger proved to be the ultimate session musician on Cosmopolite, laying down numerous spicy and memorable electric guitar, bass and keyboard tracks. Multi-faceted songstress, Robin Pluer, also frequented the studio contributing sultry harmonies and playful keyboards. Pluer has not only performed and composed with Sieger, she has also worked extensively with Paul Cebar (and the Milwaukeeans), as well as with Peter Buffett. Her voice has been heard from coast to coast on programs such as Garrison Keeler's Prairie Home Companion and on NPR's World Café. Rounding out Soucie's talented session team was jazz drummer, Ted Brusubardis, who not only supplied percussion, but doubled as recording engineer. Brusubardis' skills with sound production provided the right mixes for final mastering by music industry renowned Trevor Sadler at mastermindproductions. Cosmopolite is a musical journey you will surely enjoy.